Reri Grist

Reri Grist (born February 29, 1932) is an American coloratura soprano, one of the pioneer African-American singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.

Biography

Reri Grist was born in New York City, grew up in the East River Housing Projects, attended the High School of Music & Art, majored in voice and graduated with a BA in Music from Queens College, City University of New York.

In her early teens she performed on Broadway in small roles with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, including Robert Ardrey's 1946 play ''Jeb'', and in musicals with Eartha Kitt, while taking voice lessons with her teacher, Claire Gelda. Her first opera engagement was as Madame Herz in a concert performance of Mozart's ''Der Schauspieldirektor''. Her first staged "operatic" engagement was in 1956 as Cindy Lou (Micaela) in ''Carmen Jones'', Oscar Hammerstein's adaptation of Bizet's ''Carmen''.

She was Consuelo in the original production of Leonard Bernstein's musical ''West Side Story'' in 1957, introducing " Somewhere" to the public. One of her earliest breakthroughs in classical music came in 1960 when Bernstein engaged her to sing the soprano part in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major with the New York Philharmonic in a ''Young People's Concert'' at Carnegie Hall.Amazon.com: Mahler: Symphony No. 4: Reri Grist, Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra: Music
amazon.com. Accessed 5 October 2022.

In following years, Grist appeared with the orchestra under the batons of Bernstein, Nadia Boulanger, Pierre Boulez, and Michael Gielen. Her operatic debut was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1959, as Adele in ''Die Fledermaus'', followed by Blondchen in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail''. Igor Stravinsky attended the performance and invited her to perform his ''Le Rossignol'' with him conducting at the Washington Opera Society.

Her first European appearance was at the Cologne Opera in 1960 as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''. From 1960–1966 she was a member of the Zurich Opera, where she first performed Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', Sophie in ''Der Rosenkavalier'', Adina in ''L'elisir d'amore'', and Gilda in ''Rigoletto''. After her successes in Zurich, she found herself much in demand, leading to her debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in ''Le Coq d'Or'' and at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1962, followed by the Vienna State Opera in 1963, where she performed for twenty-five seasons.

In the same year, Grist first sang at the San Francisco Opera as Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia''. Throughout twelve consecutive seasons there, she added to her repertoire Oscar in ''Un ballo in maschera'', Manon in Massenet's ''Manon'' and Susanna in ''Le nozze di Figaro''.

In 1964, she made an acclaimed debut as Zerbinetta at the Salzburg Festival, where she performed throughout twelve seasons in Mozart and R. Strauss operas conducted by Karl Böhm, Zubin Mehta and Herbert von Karajan.

Grist's Metropolitan Opera debut on February 25, 1966, was as Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia''. Additional roles throughout thirteen seasons included Gilda, Oscar, Olympia, Sophie and Zerbinetta.

From 1965 to 1987, she performed regularly at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich in new productions, among which were Richard Strauss' ''Die schweigsame Frau'', ''Falstaff'', ''Le Nozze di Figaro'', and ''Il barbiere di Siviglia''. Guest appearances included performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala Milano, Buenos Aires, Holland Festival, and Die Wiener Festwochen.

Grist ended her operatic career in 1991 at De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, in the one-woman opera, ''Neither'' by Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett, directed by Pierre Audi

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